Gregg Smith was thinking about it anyway.
Dennis Erickson’s firing was the tipping point that convinced him he
would add no more bullet points to his resume.
After 42 years in
the coaching business, Arizona State’s offensive line coach called it
quits Thursday, announcing his retirement with little fanfare given the
rampant storms swirling around the football program.
While Erickson still hopes to coach down the line, the 65-year-old Smith has much simpler plans.
“To do a lot of (fly) fishing,” he said.
Smith
and his wife, Gloria, have had a home in Sunriver, Ore., about 30 miles
south of Bend, since 2003, and that's where he plans to spend most of
his time.
“I hope she can take me being around a lot more,” he said.
Smith also plans to visit Erickson regularly at his place in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
“I
know Dennis would have wanted me to stick it out if he stayed at ASU,”
Smith said. “Whether I wanted to or not, I don’t know. It had been in
the back of my mind that I wanted to retire.”
Smith coached
side-by-side with Erickson for 27 years, winning a pair of national
championships at Miami (1989 and '91), but his favorite memories, like
Erickson’s, came from coaching at Oregon State.
“To take a team that hadn’t been to a bowl game for (34) years and do what we did there was a lot of gratification,” he said.
Smith
endured a heavy load of criticism in his five seasons at ASU. In 2010,
it was because the line couldn’t protect quarterback Steven Threet. This
past season, people simply took aim at his age even though Smith's O-line helped foster a 4,036-yard passer (Brock Osweiler), a 1,098-yard rusher (Cameron Marshall), and a 1,397-yard WR (Gerell Robinson).
“It just kind of
goes with the job, so you just roll with it,” he said. “I’ve had a
great career, a lot of success. If I had to do it all over, I would turn
around and do it again.”
